Weekend Wrap

Despite travelling yesterday, I'm well rested after a couple of days break from rigor blogus.  But, there's been 27" of the fresh stuff in the last 72 hours, 11" overnight, so we need to wrap the weekend with dispatch

Desert Daze - I know, the event formerly known as the Hope is a big hot mess these days, but the blowout conference championships allowed me to sneak a few peaks at the play.  But it's never good when an event peaks on Saturday....

More on that below, but first the tourney:

LA QUINTA, Calif. (AP) -- A day after making a mess of the 16th and 17th holes on PGA West's Stadium Course, Hudson Swafford birdied them Sunday to take control in

the fittingly named CareerBuilder Challenge. 

A few minutes later, with rain approaching the desert over the snow-capped mountains, the 29-year-old former Georgia player celebrated his breakthrough first PGA Tour title and first Masters spot.

"They don't give them away out here. It's not easy," Swafford said. "I've been close. I've been in the heat lately. Just keep putting myself in position, and this just feels unbelievable."

Given that the chase pack included names like Hadwin, Cauley and Bozzelli, please remember that the mission to make the CareerBuilder.com great again is a three-year plan....  Though the reader might quibble with the use of "again"....

Probably more eyeballs were on this guy than on the final group:

Mickelson finished a surprisingly-good T-21 at 11 under with rounds of 68-66-73-70. He

heads to Torrey Pines next week and plans to play the next four events including the Waste Management at TPC Scottsdale, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Genesis Open at Riviera Country Club. 

It will start with the driver because it always starts with the driver for Mickelson, who said he made a number of minor adjustments throughout the week at the CareerBuilder Challenge. 

“I had to change my footwork and then, conversely, I’ve been altering the driver to accommodate my inefficiency in my swing,” Mickelson said. “And now that my swing is getting better with the driver, I’ve got to change the driver makeup and setup. So that’s developing a whole other set of things to get used to.”

He mentioned fatigue after the four days, and it seems likely that the "F-word", both the physical and mental varieties, kicked in over the weekend.  Ultimately the only thing that matters is that he got to play four rounds with a scorecard in his hand and his groin and his caddie's knees seem to have survived.

Danny Lee seems to be one of the funnier guys out there, so enjoy his punking Phil by doing the Phil ;leap after holing a short putt...while playing with said Phil.  Though the judges will add a mandatory deduction because his feet actually left the ground....

59 Is The New 62 - I know, this story has to be at least a week old....

As for that third-round 59, just another day on Tour:

Hadwin, 29, holed a three-foot par-saving putt on the 18th hole to complete the ninth sub-60 round shot in PGA Tour history, but the first by a player without a tour victory.

“I walked off 17, and I said to my caddie Joe, ‘It looks like a lot more people than when we teed off,' " Hadwin said. "I was shaking, I really was. I knew what was at stake. The last thing you want to do is miss a three-footer for 59." 

Asked to describe the round, he said, "I don’t know. Perfect, I guess. I got away with a few shots on the back and for whatever reason any time I hit a putt it went in. Everybody talks about you being in the zone, it’s your day. It was my day."

Let's also remember that not only did we have Justin Thomas' 59 last week at The Sony, but we're also seeing an increase in televised 59-watches, or so it seems to this viewer.  And we've become so blase that Golf.com's Tour Confidential panel wasn't even asked about it....

The most interesting item on this subject comes from our Shack, in a post on conditions this week at Torrey Pines.  Here he tries to explain the confluence of factors leading to the lights out scoring:

-Instruction and Trackman have made players better at repeating swings, repairing flaws 

Will we see one of these every week?

and fitting equipment.

--Conditioning of courses has never been better, impacting scoring (though the suggestion that tighter mowing heights leads to more roll was nicely debunked).

--Equipment has never been better made or more effective for all skill levels, giving the players instruments to attack courses like never before.

--Course setup has become more fluid, democratic and interesting in recent years, leading to some thrilling moments and less par-protection.

--Players and caddies have rangefinders and other tools to better understand courses.

Geoff, don't forget all the time they're spending in the gym!  

Now, it should be noted that the weather was quite cooperative at these events, relatively soft conditions with almost no winds.  

So, what's the solution?  Here's Geoff's:

A 59 is still a magical score, especially on a par-72 course (13 birdies by Hadwin!). Lamenting these rounds hurts the cause of those pushing for a competition ball since a 59 is an incredible athletic achievement aided by human progress on many fronts.

Loyal longtime readers who know how long I've been venting about this know that the only genuine solution is a ball that better fits select courses. Because the governing bodies are not going to tell manufacturers to stop innovating and even when they do, the companies are too good at what they do. Players are not going to get less skilled and superintendents, caddies and instructors are not going to be getting worse at their jobs. 

A ball that simply allows course architecture to ask a few more questions of players--in the form of longer approach shots to greens and more drivers off the tees--would do wonders for the pro game. Furthermore, I suspect elite players would actually enjoy employing such a ball at select classics--assuming they are real competitors and not placing themselves above the game. Such an introduction should also usher in a larger ball that goes longer and helps beginning and senior players enjoy the game more. 

I point this out because harvesting rough, while helping to tamp down the current infighting and grousing over great achievements, does little to advance the best long term cause. Keep that in mind this week!

While I don't disagree, I also don't have high hopes that our governing bodies will take on this issue....

The problem, as I see it, is that these technological advantages tend to equalize the field in terms of ball-striking.  It's simply harder to separate oneself from the field tee-to-green, making the performance of the DJs and Bubbas all the more impressive...

All of these advances ultimately diminish in returns, but the cumulative effect may not.  The result is that it pushes the game towards being a putting contest, kind of like the round-belly tour.

Hunky Torrey - Here's the skinny on that Shack post:

The good news for San Diego and elsewhere in California is that the rainfall that has made for an exceedingly wet winter has put a substantial dent into the severe drought that has plagued the state. 

The downside, with the Farmers Insurance Open and Tiger Woods coming to Torrey

Pines next week, is that the storm before the calm won’t begin to abate until Tuesday night, according to forecasts. The sun is expected to return on Wednesday with no more rain predicted through Sunday.

“It’s obvious that it’s pretty wet,” said Scott Bentley, golf course manager for the City of San Diego and a PGA of America professional. "Our thing is that we’ve been in a drought situation, so rainwater is great. But it has changed the way we prep for the tournament. We get out and mow when we can mow to prepare to not mow for a couple of days.” 

San Diego County was inundated with heavy winds and rain , that measured more than 2 ½ inches in places on Friday. What’s that portend for the golfers? Nasty rough and the need to keep the ball in the fairway. 

“The tour was out and took the rough down a little lower, for preparation for not being able to mow it,” Bentley said. “But it’s thick and juicy. It’s healthy. It’s going to be difficult.”

Interesting, considering that we've got a couple of older show ponies not exactly known for hitting fairways....

The TC panel was asked about expectations for Tiger,  and these two guys had seen that report on the rough:

Alan Shipnuck: It's been raining a ton in San Diego so the course will be long and soft - that'll help Tiger hit more fairways but he'll have more lumber into holes than at least a third of the field. I expect we'll see a less exciting version of the golf at the Hero - good shots and mistakes but not so much of either. Making the cut will be a nice accomplishment on this long road back. 

Joe Passov: I'm with John here. Albany did yield some really unusual situations for missed fairways. Those same misses at Torrey won't be quite as penal. And if the rough remains thick and wet, few are better at gouging shots out as Tiger. I still look at 24 birdies in 72 holes and think that if his putter is working even close to that, he'll make the cut.

Well, Joe, he used to be, but wasn't that about two back surgeries ago?  

In tying these issues together, the concern that Shack and I have is the use of severe and dreary set-ups, such as excessively long rough, to control scoring....  We all remember the Tom Meeks era of U.S. Open set-ups, and we'd rather let them play and go low than return there.

Now, let me just add that this was Goeff's header:

Whew!? There Won't Be Any 59s At Torrey Pines

I certainly agree that under these conditions that there isn't likely to be a 59 on the South Course.  But I just don't know how he can be so sure about the shorter North Course?  Probably not, but you heard it here first....

Ratings Gold -  I don't much blog TV ratings for golf, as it bores me terribly.  The numbersd are so small to begin with, so any variability is six guys who watched porn instead....

But Shack had this from last weekend, which wa sjust a howler:

Thanks to the postponement of Sunday's Chiefs-Steelers game originally slated for an early Sunday start, ESPN's presentation of the Latin America Amateur Championship was the top rated golf telecast last weekend. The LAAC averaged 550,000 viewers over a 2:37 window from 1 pm-3:37 pm ET. 

According to SportsTVRatings.com, the next highest rated golf telecast came from Florida, where the Diamond Resorts Invitational drew an incredible average of 350,000 viewers over three hours.

Got that?  The PGA Tour's event aired in Prime Time was only the third highest rated golf broadcast of the weekend.  I suppose I should rejoice that more than a half-million watched an amateur event, but this is what funds the gravy train....  Freakish one-off or harbinger of turbulence ahead?